Emissive arrays produce images made up of many pixels. Such arrays commonly control the color and brightness of each pixel to present an image. A pixel is in turn often composed of multiple subpixels that emit light of differing spectral distributions. Due to its small size, a human eye typically does not perceive a subpixel individually. Instead the eye blends the light emitted from the subpixels producing the impression of a single source of light, the pixel. The color and brightness of a pixel may be controlled by varying the brightness of the underlying subpixels. For example, the underlying subpixels may produce a white pixel by illuminating with equal intensity. The underlying subpixels may produce different pixel colors by changing their relative brightness. The size of the single uniform pixel, which determines the resolution of an array, is typically equal to the sum of the sizes of its constituent subpixels and or the smallest feature that an array possibly could resolve.
Subpixel array manufacturers may typically design subpixels to emit light with the colors of red, blue, or green. These three colors may be combined to span a range of perceivable colors while minimizing the size of a pixel. However, such pixels may often be unable to reproduce colors with a wavelength greater than that of the red subpixel or a wavelength less than that of the blue subpixel. An array may produce colors outside of these color ranges using additional subpixels, at the cost of increasing the individual pixel size and loss of resolution, unless the subpixel sizes were to shrink beyond what is currently available.